Show, Don't Tell: Rebuild Variant
by AngelNo13Bardiel
Summary: Sometimes, a small deviation is all it takes... -SxA/Story completed/C&C appreciated-


**DISCLAIMER:** I still don't own Evangelion or any of the characters, they're still property of…well, whoever owns them these days. This fic takes place in the Rebuild setting, so apply standard spoiler warnings for 2.0/2.22. And lastly, 'this' is thoughts and "this" is speech.

**SHOW, DON'T TELL: REBUILD VARIANT**

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><p>The night throughout the Katsuragi apartment had passed silently, which was strange considering what had happened hours earlier. The apartment's occupants all spent the night trying to sleep off the earlier events concerning the Angel that had tried to dive-bomb Tokyo-3 from orbit. At least, most of them were succeeding at that…<p>

In the room occupied by one Asuka Langley Shikinami, the girl in question lay in bed rolling from one side to another in a restless half-sleep. Another few moments later, she slowly opened her eyes and changed position onto her back again. What had happened earlier that day had had the biggest impact on her. She had always felt she was the best, the only REAL pilot NERV had. She could easily defeat any Angel single handedly. Hell, she pretty much did just after arriving in Japan.

Today, however had proved Asuka quite wrong in that line of thinking. She knew very well she couldn't have taken that Angel out by herself. No, today had proven to her that she indeed did need help more than she had ever admitted. One of those sources of help had been the biggest surprise, though. Her fellow pilot and roommate, Shinji Ikari, had been the one to prove his own skill. He had held up the Angel single-handedly, and even sustained very real injuries due to a temporarily high synch ratio, while the other pilots had killed the Angel. Surely, this was not the incompetent fool the Second Girl had taken him for upon first meeting. No, that seemingly weak little boy had showed strength that had impressed even her…though she was loath to admit it.

Asuka took in a deep breath and heavily sighed. "I've always been alone," she said in a quiet and rather sad tone. "Loneliness…it's not supposed to bother me." But deep down, she knew better. The Third Boy had indeed shown more worth in her eyes than she believed he could. And, after living with him for the last few weeks, she had to admit that he had his other moments. He was very neat and tidy around the apartment (far more than Misato, that was for certain), could actually cook worth a damn for a male, and always showed at least some consideration to others over himself.

'Heh, most girls would call him a keeper without hesitation,' Asuka thought to herself with a small laugh. 'Ack, what the hell am I thinking!' she mentally reprimanded herself. 'I mean…he is kinda cute, but…' she began thinking before suddenly sitting up in bed. "Dammit Asuka, why do you keep thinking these things?" she whispered, the silent darkness of her room offering no answers. Slowly, her vision moved towards her door. Well, there was one way to get these things answered…

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><p>Shinji slept as peacefully as he could on his own futon. The bandages on his hands were the reminder of what he had managed to do earlier that day. He had caught and held onto the Angel, even after it had impaled both of Unit-01's hands. And even though he had been dealt actual injury, he had felt that was worth it: his father had actually given him praise. For the rest of the day, he had felt that maybe deciding to pilot Eva hadn't been the worst decision he could have made. Maybe he could actually bridge that gap between them…<p>

While Shinji slept on, oblivious to anything outside his dreams, Asuka slowly and quietly slid his door open and lightly stepped inside before sliding the door closed in the same silent manner. For just a moment, she wondered just why she had decided to listen to that little nagging voice that said to follow this urge. Before moving any further into the room, she took a few moments and watched him sleep. 'He's a little better looking when he's not anxious or nervous,' she thought to herself. Taking another deep breath, she continued the slow inching over towards him before lowering herself to lay on the futon with her back towards his.

The feeling of another weight being placed next to him slowly lifted the fog of sleep from Shinji's mind. As he came back to conscious thought, he quickly tensed up and looked behind him at his futon's most recent occupant. "Ah…w-wha-" was all his mouth managed to get out at that moment.

Asuka, feeling all those little movements from the boy, quickly answered his choked statement with a harsh whisper of, "Don't look over here."

A light gasp escaped Shinji's mouth before quickly turning back around and facing away from Asuka. "Okay…" he whispers before trying to control the tension that has managed to spread throughout his body and close his eyes again.

"I'll put up with you for a little while longer," Asuka whispered, still looking away from him.

For the next few minutes, a heavy silence filled the room as both teens slowly tried to collect themselves and their thoughts. Finally, Shinji opened his eyes again and slowly turned his head to look at Asuka. "Um…Shikinami?"

Asuka sighed at his voice, causing Shinji to tense back up once again. "Because of what happened in today's confusion," Asuka began to explain, "we'll go by our first names, okay?" She feels him slowly relax at those words. "I'll make it special and let you call me Asuka. But I'll still call you baka-Shinji."

Another long silence seemed to stretch on for hours, neither one feeling like they knew what to say next. Asuka eventually began to grow tired of Shinji's slight nervous shaking behind her. Slowly rolling onto her back while looking over, she addressed him. "Will you stop being so damned nervous? What, do you think I'm about to attack you or something?"

Shinji, now even more anxious at what the redhead's next actions would be, quickly scrambled for a response. "Uh…I, um, can't h-help it," he began to stammer out. "Y-you're in my bed in your n-nightclothes and you're pretty, and um-" he spat out before clamping one of his hands over his mouth. 'No, no, no…I did NOT just say that out loud,' he tried to convince himself before settling back into the tense silence.

Asuka, meanwhile, let the quiet stand in the room because she was thinking over his obviously rattled ramblings. 'He…he thinks I'm pretty, huh,' she thought with a playful smirk. 'It's going to be too easy to tease him with that.' Fully turning herself towards him, she decided to corner the poor boy with his own words. "You find me pretty, do you?" she said quietly. "Of course you do, you've already seen me naked before."

"Th…that was an accident!. A-and no, it's not that, I'm trying not to imagine you na-" Shinji began as he turned himself towards her, not knowing she was fully turned his direction. Upon noticing this, his eyes quickly sprung open about as wide as they could and a heavy blush came to his face as the remainder of his sentence left his mouth. "-ked…"

Now that they were face-to-face, Asuka had a hard time keeping her own blush from creeping onto her features. "S..so…" she tried to begin before clearing her throat, "you weren't trying to picture me with less than this on? Is that why you're so nervous around me?"

Shinji quickly averted his gaze and shut his eyes, lest he lose his nerve to answer Asuka entirely. He slowly nodded and began explaining. "Y…yeah, that's why," he started. "S-sometimes, it's hard to control being jumpy around you and what I might think, but I…I don't want to objectify you like that. I mean, I might not be able to control every thought, but you're a better person than that…" As he let that last rambling sentence sink back into the silence, the boy began mentally berating himself for his words. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid…you just never could control your mouth when you're anxious…I said too much again, didn't I?' A small tap on the top of his head caused him to open his eyes and look up at the redhead again, who had this playful smirk on that he couldn't tell had any malice behind it or not. 'Crap, she's going to kill me, isn't she?'

The smirk fell away from Asuka's face as she pulled her hand back. "Baka-Shinji as usual," she said quietly. "You know…" she explained as she turned around to lay on her stomach and prop herself up on her elbows, "You might have impressed me just a little bit out there today. Just a little, though."

"R-really?" Shinji asked, surprised to the point where he could have been knocked down by a small breeze.

Asuka shrugged. "Maybe…maybe not. You'll just have to take my word for it, won't you?" Smirking once again, she continued. "Hey Shinji?"

"Hmm? Yes?" Shinji answered back.

"If you think I'm pretty, then…do you wanna kiss me?" Asuka asked with an almost wicked grin as she settled back into a seated position while facing Shinji, the blush reemerging on her face. "I think you've earned that privilege at least once."

Shinji swallowed hard at her question, trying to somehow deal with the sudden jump in temperature his body was experiencing. Realizing that he had yet to answer Asuka, he nodded his head. 'This has got to be a dream, it just has to be,' he told himself. 'Any minute now, I'm going to wake up and be very angry with my subconscious.'

"Well then, don't just sit there gawking," Asuka said, snapping Shinji's attention back from his thoughts. "Go ahead and cross that line from boy to man," she finished, closing her eyes and sticking her face out in a manner that all but dared him. Now, scared as he was, he couldn't allow this moment to pass him by: he may have been nervous and frequently avoidant, but he certainly wasn't stupid.

Shinji decided to make that decisive move, closing his own eyes and closing the distance between them. As their lips met, Asuka's eyes shot open for just a second before slowly closing again as she settled into the kiss. 'Wow…he actually took the bait,' she thought amusedly, impressed that he hadn't chickened out or broken away from the initial contact. It was a shy and almost chaste kiss, the kind frequently shared between teenagers. Both had felt an almost live electric spark in the contact, causing them to jump just a little before relaxing into the moment.

Sadly, air became an issue for Asuka after almost fifteen seconds and she pulled away from Shinji. "T-that was your first, huh?" she asked him, trying to control the small quiver in her words.

Shinji nodded, the power of speech seeming to fail him at the moment. "Y…yeah," he finally managed to squeak out. "So…what does all this mean?" he asked, wanting to mentally smack himself for asking such a mood-killing question.

Asuka shrugged. "I don't know…I still think you're kind of a baka, truth be told," she told him.

Shinji couldn't help but laugh at her statement. "Of course you do…"

Asuka smiled a little and stood back up from the futon. "Listen, as much as I'm sure you'd just LOVE for me to stay," she said, looking in his direction with a playful grin, "I'm going back to bed." Walking over towards the door, she quietly slid it open before finishing her sentence. "But if you keep proving yourself like you have been…well, this may just happen again. So…goodnight, Shinji Ikari." And with that, she slipped out of the door and slowly slid it back closed.

Shinji stared at the door for a few more moments before using a bandaged hand to wipe his sweaty forehead and plop back down on his futon. "Well…this whole day's just been eventful, hasn't it?" he asked to no one in particular.

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><p>On the other side of the door, Asuka was still touching her lips with a small smile beginning to creep onto her features. "Shinji Ikari…" she whispered, "there's definitely more to you than I imagined." And with those last few thoughts, she quickly and quietly padded off to bed…though, given recent events, sleep seemed even less than likely than it had been…<p>

*******THE END*******

**A/N:** Well, that completes my little excursion into the Rebuild movies (for now, at least…we'll see what happens after 3.0/4.0). And really, considering that little scene 2.0/2.22 gave us, how could I not punch up something like this? If it doesn't feel terribly different from the original **SHOW, DON'T TELL**, well…I think that was kind of the point. I'd like to think "that moment" from 2.0/2.22 was the parallel to the original series' episode 15 "moment". Hope it left you feeling as warm and fuzzy as the original did.

Mitsumi (along her kin) is gonna sit this one out. Actually, she's been feeling a little under-the-weather lately.

Pre-read for this one was done by Bagheera, Final Messenger, JimmyWolk, and SailorStarDust1. Thanks, guys. Very good work.

As usual: good comments will be appreciated, bad ones will be ignored (or kept for firewood). But I do favor good/helpful criticism, so send it my way! So go take a look at the rest of my fics, tell me what you think. And review! Even if it's not positive, review!

Until our paths next cross,**  
>-AngelNo13Bardiel-<strong>


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